Chapter 99 The Fall of the House of Chan
Ming-tsu adopted a conspiratorial stage whisper, one whose tone suggested
intrigue, but whose volume would almost surely be audible behind the mysterious
mirror. "Chiang Chan, I'm surprised that you don't know this. Your father has
always been the real brains behind the Black Scorpion, but since Richard is the
elder brother, George has always had to defer to him." Ming-tsu bit firmly down
on her quivering lower lip to suppress the lightning bolts of pain that
continued to ravage her tender breasts. "For years your father has been
pleading with Richard to expand the family enterprises beyond Shanghai. To
Peking, Nanking, Tsingtao."
Chiang Chan gave Ming-tsu a sharp glance, surprised that she knew so much
of the inner workings of the Black Scorpions. His eyes strayed expectantly
toward the subterranean passage. "Where are those fools?" he wondered aloud
nervously, speaking of his three comrades. "They should have returned by now."
Ming-tsu knew that there was little time to waste. "For several months your
father has been making overtures to the tong lords of those cities -- and to
General Wang, under whose protection some of them operate. And all agreed that
there were millions to be made if they united their forces. But your uncle
refused to go along. And that is why George was obliged to ally himself with
the Wang syndicate of Tsingtao. The General was here earlier, was he not?"
Chiang Chan, stunned by her words, could do nothing more than nod blankly.
My father, his stupefied expression seemed to ask, has taken sides against my
uncle?
Ming-tsu tried to take a deep breath, but her nervousness prevented it -
everything would depend on her next question.
"Today was Richard's last chance. Did he throw in his lot with the
syndicate?"
"No... I mean I don't think so." A troubled-looking Chiang Chan slid off
of her, and began pulling on his clothes, leaving Ming-tsu lying on her back on
the table. "I think that my uncle feels that he would soon be pushed to one
side if he joined them. I have never seen him so angry at my father - because
he -- my father -- seemed to favor this scheme..."
"Seemed to?" Ming-tsu's sardonic smile seemed to press home the magnitude
of his understatement. "You should be proud and pleased, Chiang Chan. In a
day, perhaps two, the obstruction to this venture - your uncle - will be
removed. And then it will be your father who will rule in Shang ... "
Ming-tsu was never to finish her sentence. As Chiang Chan stared at his
father's mistress in bewilderment, they heard the sound of a door being kicked
in violently, then a woman's screams, a scuffle, and then two shots rang out in
quick succession from behind the wall of glass. Ming-tsu pulled herself alertly
up to a sitting position on the table and watched as Chiang raced for the
massive door, pausing only to seize a blood-stained club that he had noticed
earlier when he had replaced the Rock Garden in the wall of weaponry.
Ming-tsu's heart was pounding as she sized up the two possible exits. She
looked anxiously toward the underground passageway to make sure that Dao and the
others were not coming. Then she heard the sound of a door opening, behind the
great mirror, and Chiang's voice shouting, "Where's my father?"
Then Richard Chan's stern, commanding voice, "Stay back! Put the club
down, nephew and ... and don't go in there. There's been ... an accident."
Then another scream from a female voice.
"Out of my way, damn you! Father! You've shot him!
Ming-tsu swung her nude body off the table, struggling desperately to free
her wrists from the collar-shackles. She fell to her knees, looking frantically
for a key to the fetters of the choke-collar among the ropes and chains and
shackles she had removed from the table earlier.
She heard Richard's voice again, tense, nervous. "Stay back, Chiang! And
put the club down. You don't understand. I was only looking to see if he was
still here. He was the one that went for the gun. We wrestled for it and it went
off. Isn't that right Mai-Lee?"
Ming-tsu heard the familiar silvery voice of Richard Chan's favorite
concubine, who had apparently been entertaining the Lord of the Black Pagoda,
issue a blood-curdling scream, "Look out, Richard!" and then heard the dull
sound of the club falling and a deep-voiced cry of pain, followed by the
unmistakable sound of something metallic spinning across the stone floor of the
adjoining room.
"No, Chiang Chan." Another woman's voice. A voice from the past. A voice
she knew. But whose? Whose?
"That is not how it was," the trembling female voice continued. "Richard
had drawn his gun before he came into our box."
"Be still, Peony, unless you fancy an evening in the Whipping Pit!" Richard
Chan snapped venomously.
Peony! Of course! The limber, sad-eyed young beauty from Madame Wong's
whom she and Li Chang had teased and tormented on several occasions. Ming-tsu
had learned of the slender beauty's capacity for pain during a memorable
threesome with George Chan himself. George had no doubt taken pleasure in
forcing himself upon Peony while watching her own torture and degradation.
Peony's voice was raw with emotion. "You gave my sister to your filthy
animals and you expect me to be silent! I'd rather spend a week in your Whipping
Pit than do your bidding. "Look out!! He's reaching for the gun!"
Peony's cry was cut short by the gruesome sound of the club descending once
more, a loud groan of pain from Richard Chan, and another piercing scream from
his Eurasian concubine. Then Ming-tsu heard the sound of the brutal club
falling again. But this time there were no more groans....
A minute or two later a pale, blood-spattered Chiang Chan staggered back
through the heavy door, followed by a hysterical, half-dressed Mai-Lee. The
panic-stricken Eurasian beauty was supported by the smaller, slighter Peony, who
wore only a pair of sharp-toothed nipple clamps, connected by a golden chain.
Chiang Chan stared at the bits of blood and tissue on the bludgeon in his hand
in stunned disbelief, muttering, "Dead, both dead."
It was a moment before Ming-tsu noted with ironic satisfaction that the
club that had crushed the skull of the scheming tyrant of the Black Pagoda was
the very same leather-handled truncheon that Feng the Butcher had used to crush
the legs of Li Chang on the Night of the Tiger. The daring and amorous lover
she had betrayed and the brilliant mandarin to whom she had betrayed him - both
dispatched to their doom by the crudest implement in the dungeon of the Black
Pagoda. The wheel of fate had come full circle.
Dear Readers - This does not end our story, but it does bring to an end
the nightmarish era during which the brothers Chan held sway as the undisputed
Lords of Shanghai.
In the ensuing chapters I will relate the strange events that mark the final
stages of the Rise of Li Chang. The opening chapter of this final section,
some may be pleased to know, will feature the long-awaited return of that
bewitching blonde goddess, Erika Weiss. The remaining chapters of Book II of
The Jade Pavilion will also take up anew the ongoing struggle between Li Chang
and the surviving Scorpions and the sinister General Wang. It will also bring
us the continuing adventures of Ming-tsu, Mai-Lee, Peony, Ci-ci and Qieu, the
brave and beautiful wife of Li Chang's friend, Luk Yee.
I am confident you that you will enjoy the exciting chapters to come
more than most of those lovely ladies will.
I apologize for the slower pace of the installments of JP II of late,
but when I tell you why, I hope you will forgive me. In recent weeks I've had
the good fortune of providing some editorial assistance to a friend, Polybios,
who not long ago submitted the fifth installment (Chapters IX and X) of
"Morituri", a story about Taleena, a ravishingly beautiful young woman in Roman
times, who, through a series of unfortunate circumstances finds herself a galley
slave struggling under the tasker's lash, and later, one of the few female
recruits in a school for gladiators. The physical training at the gladiator's
school is arduous in the extreme. And, what is worse, one of the trainers,
Byrria, the Thracian Tigress, takes a disliking to her, and she, along with
lecherous guards and envious recruits, proceeds to make Taleena's life something
of a living hell, which seems to worsen with each succeeding chapter.
The opening chapters are rather sedate by BDSMLIB standards, but with Chapters
IX and X (just out a few days ago) the action picks up quite and bit and remains
intense throughout the rest of the many chapters in this story.
Here's a sample from Chapter X:
" Breathing heavily from their brief scuffle, Balbinus ordered the two ruffians
to seize his prey. Eager to oblige, the pair of sailors pulled the blue-eyed
beauty roughly to her feet as her long, blonde hair swirled around her shoulders
in splendid disarray. Taleena could feel their foul breath on her neck as the
muscular guards pinioned her arms securely. The fuming merchant wiped at his
mouth, waiting for his henchmen to render the blonde helpless. Then he stepped
forward and grasped the azure-trimmed neckline of her beautiful white tunic
firmly in his fleshy hands. Then, with an almost bestial growl, he gave the rich
material a violent downward wrench.
Taleena's full, pale breasts bounced free as her bloated tormentor
pushed the torn fabric back over her soft, rounded shoulders, baring her to the
waist. Balbinus, his face flushed with desire, exertion, and the thrill of
conquest, took a moment to catch his breath while he admired his captive's
pink-tipped breasts as they bobbled enticingly as she twisted from side to side,
trying to escape the sailors' grip. A wicked smile formed on his lips as he put
his hands on Taleena's rounded hips and pulled the pale garment down until its
tattered remnants lay festooned at her feet. "
I've read hundreds of erotic stories over the years, and it is my honest
belief that the characterization, setting, and story line of "Morituri" ranks
with the best of them - all three of those qualities are Polybios' doing, by
the way, not mine - otherwise I would not have offered my assistance with the
grammar and phrasing and such matters. Give it a try. I think you will find it
an exciting odyssey, as I have.
